'Shubman Gill will be 3rd or 4th most influential person in India after Prime Minister': Jos Buttler

Hindustan Times

5 hours ago

Shubman Gill, the current Indian Test captain, will become the third or fourth most influential person in the country after the Prime Minister, feels England white-ball great Jos Buttler. Gill, who was named captain of India's Test side after Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from red-ball cricket last month, will make a new beginning of the Indian side minus legends like Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, when they take on England in a five-match Test series starting June 20 in Leeds. Before that, Buttler shared his thoughts on Gill and his leadership qualities.
"I don't think we can quite understand the level of interest and the stardom that these guys have. You see it around the IPL, you're aware of it, but actually living that yourself… I think they say the Indian Test captain is like the third or fourth most influential person in India, behind the Prime Minister etc. - so you really are put up on that pedestal," Buttler told former England fast bowler Stuart Broad in the For The Love Of Cricket podcast.
Buttler played under Gill's captaincy in IPL 2025 when he turned up for the Gujarat Titans after not being retained by the Rajasthan Royals ahead of the mega auction. Both Gill and Buttler had an excellent season with the bat, along with Sai Sudharsan, as the trio formed a strong top-order that helped GT move into the playoffs this year.
When Broad asked Buttler to explain Shubman Gill as a leader, the former England captain used words like "calm," "measured," and "interesting." To put matters into perspective, Butter called Gill a mixture of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli when it comes to captaining the side. Kohli was an in-your-face captain, while Rohit was calmer and laid-back, but both had a high level of intensity on the field.
"He's a really impressive player and an impressive young man," Buttler said. "He's pretty calm and measured when he speaks, but [it's] interesting, I feel like on the field he's got a bit of fight about him; a bit of intensity, quite passionate. I think he'll be a mix of Kohli and Rohit.
"Kohli [was] that sort of real aggressive [character], really transformed the Indian team, in your face, up for the contest. Rohit [was] a bit on the other side, a bit more laid back, very cool, calm, collected customer, but with that sort of fight. I feel like, from my time knowing Shubman so far, he'll be a bit in the middle. He's obviously learned from those two guys… but he'll be very much his own man."
Buttler said one of Gill's biggest challenges will be to ensure that he does not let the captaincy affect his batting - as happened with Buttler towards the end of his England's white-ball captaincy.
"He talked about compartmentalising batting and captaining; so when he's batting, he just wants to be a batter, and then he will try and work on his captaincy and try and separate the two roles," Butler said. "When you're doing such a big job as being captain of the Indian cricket team, he'll have to try and do that well and have some good people supporting him."